Missing: Cassie
by Morphus
Summary: A story I wrote long before the end of the series. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I intended this to be a one-shot short story. I know it looks like it can be continued, but I don't really have any ideas at the moment. We'll see how it goes.**

**Text in italics represent thought-speak, since for some reason I can't get the brackets to appear.**

_Jake? Jake! Wake up! It's been almost two hours! DEMORPH!_ I shouted frantically at the motionless tiger lying beside me. His eyes snapped open.

_Huh? What happened? Where are the others?_ he questioned me.

_Marco, Ax and Tobias are safe. We can't find Cassie though. Maybe she got out already. Listen, we have to get out of here. The Hork-Bajir are shooting Dracon Beams like crazy. Remorph into fly and bail! I gotta go find Cass now. Hurry!_

With a rush of my gossamer wings, I was off.

I searched frantically for Cassie, but there as no sign of her. Thinking that she had escaped earlier, I flew gratefully out of the Yeerk Pool which was alive with the sound of Dracon Beams being shot. Once outside, I demorphed as quickly as I could, got wings and headed back home.

The next day, Erek told me that one of his friends had seen Taxxons feeding on a dead wolf after the battle. My heart filled with immense grief for the death of my best friend. I could not bear to tell Jake the news. Erek projected a hologram of a letter to tell the news, so as to make things easier for me to spread the news. I called for a meeting in Jake's house.

As he read the letter, his hands shook. He dropped it on the ground. Marco picked it up, read it, and passed it to Tobias (in human morph), hands trembling. Jake buried his head in his hands. "RACHEL! You went to look for Cassie yesterday. WHY DIDN'T YOU FIND HER?" Jake demanded. There was a raging fire in his eyes that I had never seen before.

"Yes. It's my fault." I whispered.

"The Chee found Cassie in a dark place. Rachel might have overlooked it. The Yeerk Pool is so big! There are plenty of places that Cassie could have been hiding in and Rachel might not have seen. Moreover, he was in fly morph! She already had a hard time trying to find you with those fly eyes!" Tobias protested. Jake just stared blankly into space.


	2. Chapter 2

All of a sudden, Jake started morphing. Feathers sprouted from his arms. His fingers elongated to form wings. His legs took the form of talons. I started morphing too. Spreading our wings, we took off silently, ignoring the warnings of the other animorphs.

We went back to the Yeerk Pool. Our goals were similar-find Cassie. Although we knew that it was hopeless, we still refused to give up. This attitude rushed in our blood. As cousins, we shared this "quality". We circled round and round above the the ruined Yeerk Pool, our eyes frantically scanning the area. Our strong desire to find Cassie made our wings tireless. We searched for hours, remorphing again and again, blatantly ignoring our fatigue. The day darkened into night. I realised that we had not said a word to each other all day. I broke the silence.

_Jake, let's go home. Our parents will be worried and the Yeerks must be searching all over for us. We can't afford to get ourselves caught. Cassie won't be thrilled if we suffer the same fate and leave Earth and the others in the lurch._

Surprisingly, I managed to persuade him. We demorphed in Jake's house. It was already evening. I called my mum and said I would be staying over at Jake's to do a project. I wanted to be with Jake. I figured that we could comfort each other and I wanted to keep watch and make sure he did not morph again, go out and step right into danger. Our roles seemed to have switched. He had become the reckless one, and I, the rational one. Although I was itching to squash some Yeerks myself, I knew better. They would get me.

Jake and I talked late into the night, about Cassie. The doorbell rang. Nobody answered it. I got the door, and opened it.

"Rachel." A familiar voice called. I looked up. Right into the eyes of my best friend.


End file.
